Mutated Tao

A child was riding his ox while taking their dog out for a walk. Some women were washing clothes by the river. Everything seemed… normal; it was different compared to what they had seen back in Pi County. There was nothing special about the village based on appearances alone.

But the more normal it seemed, the more abnormal it was to Li Huowang.

He once again took out the envelope and confirmed that this was indeed where the Sitting Oblivion Dao had been spotted; however, the details were unknown.

Thinking back to what had happened in Pi County, Li Huowang told the others to stay back, “Since there is a possibility that members of the Sitting Oblivion Dao are inside, let me sneak in first so that we don’t alert them.”

“Senior Li, will you be alright?” asked Bai Lingmiao. She wanted to say something else, but stopped. Li Huowang’s recent changes hadn’t escaped her eyes. While he had recently gotten better, he had suddenly become paranoid once again.

Li Huowang hadn’t told her anything about the voices. After all the more he explained, the more worried she would get.

After reassuring Bai Lingmiao, Li Huowang sent his illusion into the ground and made himself invisible; then, he started walking on the path beside the willow tree.

“Again. People. Wind.”

At this point, Li Huowang was no longer surprised by the voice. He just shook his head and looked at Monk’s illusion that was stuck within a tree.

“Shh.” Li Huowang placed his finger on his mouth before slowly moving into Ganyuan Village.

He ignored his illusions and was focused completely on identifying any potential threats.

Once he entered, he soon realized that the entire Ganyuan VIllage was celebrating something. Even the couplets and Door Gods[1] were being changed and given a makeover.

Li Huowang sat on a tree covered in red cloth. As he looked down from atop the tree, he didn’t see anything unusual.

He decided to wait patiently.

It was only after lunch that the villagers suddenly congregated before heading into the depths of the village. All of them were happily chatting like normal.

Li Huowang followed them and stopped in front of a village shrine.

Here, their voices became much softer. The adults would even pinch the children to be quiet if they were too loud.

Everyone just stood there; it was as if they were waiting for something.

Just when Li Huowang was thinking about entering the shrine to investigate, the black door suddenly opened. Then, the villagers brought out a brown deity made from clay. From the vase being held in the deity’s hand, it appeared to be a Bodhisattva.

But this Bodhisattva didn’t have the usual kind and merciful face. It was as if it had gone through the worst storm in its life. It’s face had melted away, leaving strands of clay on its face. Two irregular black holes had been poked to make its eyes.

“Heave ho!” The villagers of the Ganyuan village all helped carry the Bodhisattva as they paraded it all around the village.

“A Clay Bodhisattva…” muttered Li Huowang, frowning at what he was seeing.

Li Huowang climbed up a tree and looked at how the villagers paraded the peculiar clay Bodhisattva around the village numerous times. Every time they made a circle around the village, they would place another red veil onto the clay Bodhisattva. The sunlight was quite hot, but the Bodhisattva was covered in layers upon layers of the red veil.

When they were finally done, they brought it back to the shrine and placed it back inside.

After placing the Bodhisattva back inside, they once again picked it up, sang for a bit, and then brought it out of the shrine. Once the clay Bodhisattva was out of the shrine, they once again placed it back inside.

They went to and fro three times before finally placing the Bodhisattva down for good. Then, they lit up some incense sticks and started praying.

Li Huowang wanted to check what the shrine looked like from the inside, but the villagers were blocking the entrance. Thus, Li Huowang had no chance to sneak inside.

After a while, the sun slowly set and the villagers went back to their homes.

When it was night, the shrine keeper locked the door of the shrine before going to sleep.

It was only at this point that Li Huowang slowly came down from the tree.

Before long, the sound of metal being cut in half rang out. The bronze lock was slashed in half and the door was opened slightly.

By the time moonlight illuminated the dark interior of the shrine, Li Huowang had already grabbed his sword tightly.

If the Sitting Oblivion Dao is involved, then they would have definitely tampered with the shrine.

Only after confirming there weren’t any traps did Li Huowang slowly tiptoed inside.

Due to the incense sticks, the entire shrine was filled with the smell of smoke. The clay Bodhisattva from before sat in the middle of the darkness, its melted face barely visible.

But it was not the only statue here. There were clay statues of other deities lined up on both sides. They were the Eighteen Arhats.

While the Bodhisattva didn’t have a face, the Eighteen Arhats did. They stood there with faces filled with anger or hatred. They all looked extremely real, to the point that anyone stepping inside would feel like they were being watched.

As for the Bodhisattva, it was placed in the middle of the shrine, sitting atop a stone lotus.

The incense sticks lit up by the villagers had already burned out. All of the incense sticks lit up by the villagers were used to worship only the clay Bodhisattva.

There were two other clay statues to the left and right of the Bodhisattva. These two statues still had their faces, and from the looks of it, they were a pair of assistants for the Bodhisattva, one boy and one girl.

The shrine was quite small, and so Li Huowang managed to inspect it fairly quickly. However, he didn’t find anything suspicious, and so he once again placed his attention on the Bodhisattva that was shrouded in numerous red veils.

The Bodhisattva wasn’t tall, roughly two meters. But due to the stone lotus altar, Li Huowang had to raise his head to look at it.

Given the darkness of the shrine, it was quite horrifying to look at a clay Bodhisattva with its face melted off.

Li Huowang had long since thought that there was something wrong with it.

Should I just cut it apart?

Li Huowang began to ponder his choices.

While thinking about it, he suddenly turned his attention to the clay statues of the assistants.

Wait… They weren’t like this just now. Did they move?

Looking at two clay statues staring at him, Li Huowang felt his body go numb from an inexplicable chill.

“You. Come.”

“Who?!” Li Huowang turned around, but didn’t see anything.

Wait, was that my auditory hallucination or something from the shrine?

Li Huowang didn’t know what to do; he couldn’t differentiate it.

1. Deities that act as protectors to the house ☜

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